Which to use
“poires” and “prières” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #23,649
- “poires” frequency rank
- #7,356
- “prières” frequency rank
- 31005
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | poires | prières |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de poire. | Pluriel de prière. |
Where the eye mixes poires and prières
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. poires runs 6 letters (CVVCVC) against prières's 7 (CCVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between poires and prières
A purely visual mix-up. poires (\pwaʁ\) and prières (\pʁi.jɛʁ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31005, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
poires is recorded at frequency rank #23,649, classified as anoun, pronounced \pwaʁ\. prières is at rank #7,356, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pʁi.jɛʁ\.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 31005, this pair ranks #306,619 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of poires vs prières
Shared letters: eiprs. Private to "poires": o. Private to "prières": è.
"poires" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC · "prières" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- poires ← opires · piores · poiers · poiress · poirres · poirse · ppoires
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "poires" for "prières" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "poires" or "prières" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "poires" and "prières" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "poires" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "prières" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #306,619 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "poires" and "prières" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "poilues vs poires". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #306,619 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.